Hyderabad: Telangana high court has ordered interim suspension of a single judge’s ruling that had granted relief to candidates under the persons with disabilities category in the recruitment process for secondary grade teacher (SGT) posts.A division bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin passed the order on March 12 while hearing an appeal filed by the Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC). The bench also issued notices to the department for women, children, disabled and senior citizens, school education department, and the candidates concerned, seeking their response in the matter. “In order to maintain parity, there shall be interim suspension of the impugned orders,” the bench observed, noting that similar interim suspension had already been granted earlier this year in related cases. The court also directed the registrar (judicial) to place the matters on the administrative side for assignment to the appropriate bench, as the cases fall within the jurisdiction of two division benches. The single judge had delivered the order in June 2024 while disposing of a batch of petitions challenging the revised detailed list of vacancies reserved for persons with disabilities in the recruitment process for 5,415 SGT posts in the school education department. One of the petitioners before the single judge, an orthopaedically disabled candidate from the erstwhile Adilabad district, contended that several vacancies earmarked for visually impaired and hearing impaired candidates in the 2012 recruitment drive had remained unfilled and were subsequently carried forward to the 2017 recruitment. According to the petitioner, the authorities later issued revised vacancy details and a provisional selection list by applying interchangeability between disability categories in a manner contrary to the procedure prescribed under govt orders and the relevant service rules. The petitioner argued that the revised vacancy list issued in Nov 2019 and the provisional selection list published in Feb 2020 violated section 34(2) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, as well as govt orders governing reservation and interchangeability among disability categories in recruitment. After examining the records, the single judge held that the procedure adopted by the authorities for applying interchangeability between disability categories was not in accordance with statutory provisions and govt orders. The judge directed the authorities to revise the detailed vacancy position in accordance with the Disabilities Act and the relevant govt orders, and thereafter consider the petitioners for appointment if they were otherwise eligible on merit and under the appropriate disability category.
